Lady Highlanders take top honors at Magnolia tournament

Darrell Hamlett

Published 6:00 pm, Monday, February 24, 2003

I'm always so proud and pleased every time the girls go out," said TWHS coach Janean Murphy. "I have my expectations for them to go out and perform well and they always do well. It's nice to come out with a 1-2 win. There are other good players that played in the tournament as well so it's nice to come out with both teams winning."

Coach Murphy said that Monday's cold weather conditions did not affect her team who had all but three golfers shot under 80.

"The weather was cold but the girls don't complain," she said. "They practice in this stuff. So many of them play in a junior winter golf tour and are used to playing in cold weather. It's just another day of golf to them and I think that's why we dominate a course on cold wintery days. It gives us an advantage. The girls are not griping about the weather, they're just playing golf."

The Woodlands A team took top honors as they fired a total of 291 in the one round event. All five members of the A team finished in the top ten. The B team finished second with a total of 330.

"The A team wants to break 300 every time and they need to do that and have been," said Murphy. "They are getting more back on track with all the scores under 80. I don't want to have anything over 79 and every one working hard on that.

"The B team had its lowest round but is about 15 strokes off where we need to be in order to get two teams to state," Murphy continued. "They need to shoot around 310-315 at regionals. It's nice see the score getting lower."

While The Woodlands was up to its usual performance, the Oak Ridge girls team had one of their best tournaments of the year as the Lady War Eagles shot 367 to take third place honors.

"By far this is our best tournament outing of the year and I think one of the lowest scores ever shot at Oak Ridge as a team," said ORHS coach Bill Cain.

The Lady War Eagles were paced by Linsday Lewis who shot a 78 to finish tied for sixth individually. Freshman Landa Stewart was tied for eighth with a round of 79.

"The most pleasant surprise was Lindsay Lewis' 78. That's by far her best round," said Cain. "Landa is just a freshman and had her second straight 79. She's a solid player and going to be a great player."

In the individual competition, TWHS A took the top four spots led by Ashley Knoll in first place with a round of 67. Stacey Lewis was second with a 73 followed by Stefanie Page at 75 and Lizann Dernick and TWHS B's Jenna Kissinger at 76.

Knoll won her sixth straight tournament as she continues her strong play. The senior, who has signed to play golf at Oklahoma State, has had all but two rounds under par this year. On Monday, she was 1-under heading into the final five holes when she birdied four in a row before closing out with a par.

"She's just amazing to watch," said Murphy. "She's just a great player with a great attitude. On the course she knows what to do and has set out a game plan that she sticks with. She's a fun person to play golf with."

Lewis had a rougher ending to her round than her teammate. The Arkansas signee was 3-under with five holes left before she had four bogeys.

"She's obviously playing good," said Murphy. "She's frustrated with the way she finished but still she's a great golfer. She has had every round under 80 this year and her and Ashley are the only players who can say that."

Other players off the TWHS A team were Stefanie Page who finished third individually with a 75, Lizann Dernick who was fourth with a 76 and Stacy Brown who was tied for sixth with a 78.

For the TWHS B team, Jena Kissinger finished tied for fourth with a 76 while Morgan Knocke was tied for eighth with a 79. Blair Brame shot an 85, Brittni Pine a 90, and Janice Mitchell a 98 to round out the scores.

Conroe's Jennifer Foote finished in tenth place individually as her 81 helped the Tigerettes finish sixth out of the 15 team field. As a team Conroe had a 405 total.